I have received your favor of April 22d, with the two volumes
bearing the name of Condorcet. If the length of time
they remained in your hands had been in the least inconvenient
to me, which was not the case, the debt would have
been overpaid by the interesting observations into which
you were led by your return of them.

The idea of a Government "in one centre," as expressed
and espoused by this Philosopher and his theoretic associates,
seems now to be every where exploded. And the
views which you have given of its fallacy will be a powerful
obstacle to its revival anywhere. It is remarkable that in
each of our States which approached nearest to the theory
changes were soon made, assimilating their constitution to
the examples of the other States, which had placed the
powers of Government in different depositories, as means
of controlling the impulse and sympathy of the passions,
and affording to reason better opportunities of asserting
its prerogatives.

The great question now to be decided, and it is one in
which humanity is more deeply interested than in any political
experiment yet made, is, whether checks and balances
sufficient for the purposes of order, justice, and the
general good, may not be created by a proper division and
distribution of power among different bodies, differently
constituted, but all deriving their existence from the elective
principle, and bound by a responsible tenure of their
trusts. The experiment is favored by the extent of our
Country, which prevents the contagion of evil passions;
and by the combination of the federal with the local systems
of Government, which multiplies the divisions of
power, and the mutual checks by which it is to be kept
within its proper limits and direction. In aid of these considerations
much is to be hoped from the force of opinion
and habit, as these ally themselves with our political institutions.
I am running, however, into reflections, without
recollecting that all such must have fallen within the
comprehensive reviews which your mind has taken of
the principles of our Government, and the prospects of
our Country.